- ✪ Operation HASTEN
- -5 Heeding the Times
- -4 Awakening a Sense of Urgency
- -3 Shouldering Responsibility
- -2 Overcoming Obstacles
- -1 Encouraging Burden Bearers
- 0 Nurturing the Faith of Jesus
- H Highlighting Present Truth
- A Activate the Youth
- S Separate from Babylon
- T Train in True Education
- E Evangelize the Cities
- N Nurture Christ-Like Characters
As we count down in Operation HASTEN, the mindset needed to hasten the Lord's return, number three is about shouldering responsibility. In this message, we explore the crucial role of leadership within the Christian Army.
When we think of standing up for God’s people, Ezekiel 22:30 comes to mind:
“And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”
Ezekiel 22:30
In this passage, God is looking for someone to stand in the defense of His people, to take responsibility. But no one answered the call. Today, God is still looking for men and women to stand in the gap, to lead in prayer, and to bring others back to Him. Will we answer the call?
This ‘gap’ refers to the breach in the spiritual defenses of the nation. God sought someone to repair that breach, to lead, to pray, and to bring others back to Him. But no one answered the call. This is a reminder that God still seeks men and women today who will stand in the gap, who will step up to lead when the world is in chaos, to intercede in prayer and to call others to repentance.
“Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.”
Psalms 106:23
Like Moses, we are called to stand in the gap and lead others back to righteousness, shouldering the responsibility to intercede and guide. We are to be the repairers of the breach, those who restore the spiritual foundations for the final generation.
“And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.”
Isaiah 58:12
Ellen White reminds us in her writings:
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”
Education (ED 57.3)
Our time calls for such leaders—those willing to speak the truth and act in righteousness. This is the heart of shouldering responsibility. We are called to endure hardships as soldiers of Christ.
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
2 Timothy 2:3-4
This is our mission—to stay focused, not entangled in worldly distractions but wholly committed to the mission of Christ. We are soldiers in the army of God, called to bear the burdens and to stand firm in the faith.
“With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained… how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Savior might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come!”
General Conference Bulletin, October 1, 1902, p. 671.6
We must accept the call to arms! Christ is calling for volunteers to enlist under His standard and bear the banner of the cross before the world.
“Christ is calling for volunteers to enlist under His standard and bear the banner of the cross before the world. The church is languishing for the help of young men who will bear a courageous testimony, who will, with their ardent zeal, stir up the sluggish energies of God's people and so increase the power of the church in the world. Young men are wanted who will resist the tide of worldliness and lift a voice of warning against taking the first steps in immorality and vice.”
E.G. White, An Address to Young Men
Are we ready to say, “Here am I, send me!”
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
Isaiah 6:8
Are we prepared to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life? This is not a physical fight; it is a fight of faith. As 1 Timothy 6:12 tells us, we need to fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, and remember the calling we’ve professed before many witnesses.
Let us take action and embrace the mindset of a true burden-bearer, committed to serve, lead, and restore in these critical times.